


Til Death

by brainsickVagabond (HomicidalKitty)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Afterlife, Alcoholism, Fluff, Ghosts, M/M, Nothing surprising, Smut, Sort of major character death?, since it's the point of the story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-22 22:12:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10706193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomicidalKitty/pseuds/brainsickVagabond
Summary: You were eighteen years old when you died.Dave, now a ghost who is attached to his grieving brother, meets Karkat who is haunting the house Dave and Bro move into.





	Til Death

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is the comeback nobody asked for!
> 
> I know I mentioned it in the tags, but I don't know if this counts as a major character death since like, Dave is still around and it's the point of the story. I made sure it wasn't graphic, everything was just through Dave's perspective and I kept it brief. This has not been beta-read, I wrote this in one night all in one sitting after a few shots of cinnamon whiskey. 
> 
> Also I just want to say that I am a slut for fluff and I love seeing fics where either Karkat or Dave or both make sure that the other is comfortable in the sexy times. It is good and sweet.
> 
> Enjoy everyone!

You were eighteen years old when you died.

You were crossing the street with Bro. It was your birthday and the two of you were walking home from your favorite restaurant. It was raining earlier and when you felt the impact of the car hitting you, rolling over top of it, you thought you had lived through it. It hurt like a bitch but you were still conscious.

It occurred to you that something was very wrong when Bro couldn’t take his eyes off the pavement. No matter how many times you tried to tell him “Hey, I’m fine, look at me, I’m okay,” he couldn’t stop screaming. When you looked down, you understood why.

It’s been two years since you died and Bro had barely made any improvement. His alcoholism went from functioning to almost lethal. Rose, your loving sister had decided to start looking after him and helping him get cleaned up. He still drank, but not enough to be at risk for losing his job.

Dying was a strange concept. You’re still here but it’s so heartbreakingly lonely. Sometimes when you see Bro or Rose cry themselves to sleep you want to scream and damn any and every deity that allowed this to happen. You’re not even mad about being dead, but by how much it’s hurting them still.

You’ve made attempts to make contact. Rose is better and seeing you than Bro is, but sometimes when he’s completely shitfaced he can still see you. You try so hard to make your attempts loving. There were times when Bro was close to death that you actually knocked the drinks out of his hand. Scared the piss out of the drunken man, but it kept him alive.

You knew something was wrong when you saw the boxes.

You walk (floated? Movement is such a weird process like this) into the living room and see Bro, shaved and well-dressed for the first time.

“I’m proud of you, Bro. This is a new start for you.” Rose smiles, her normally full cheeks have sunken slightly. She has a bad habit of ignoring the need for food in her depressive episodes.

“Shit, Rosie, are you sure you don’t wanna come with? It’s supposed to be a big place.” He asks, concern in his eyes.

“I can’t, I have to stay for Roxy and Mom.”

It frustrates you how much you can’t see your other sister or your mother. You can’t really leave the apartment unless Bro leaves too since you’ve become so attached to him.

And just like that, Bro had taken off for a new home. You follow him the whole way, staying in the back of the moving van. You can’t always control when he can or can’t see you and the last thing you want to do is scare him off the road because his dead little brother is chilling in the back.

Since your iPod and headphones were in your pocket when you died, it somehow made the trip to the afterlife with you. You’ve heard some sick tunes since you’ve died but apparently you can’t download Gorillaz’ new album. It sucks.

After hours, the van stops and you float through the metal to see your new home.

It’s a small, two story Edwardian style home or some shit. You can’t remember, you usually defaulted to “old as fuck” but when you were alive, Rose roasted you for not knowing the names of the architectural periods. Whatever. You miss her.

What shocks you, however, is the shape of a face in the attic window. There was a weird ghosty-spider sense about the afterlife that lets you sense when you are near other ghosts. Kind of like a support network for the recently deceased. There was an old woman who calmed you down from panicking only for you to realize that she was also dead.

The point is that you feel another ghost in the house. And you don’t know how to feel about that.

Your attention is drawn to Bro moving his things by himself. This was your favorite thing to do, and you have it down to a science.

The goal to feeling helpful when you’re dead, is to do the small things. Any time Bro takes in a huge box, you do something small, like a small box of cutlery or some shit. Nothing obvious. You can help your brother without scaring the shit out of im, and at the end of the day, he realizes that it went way faster than he thinks.

When Bro closes the door behind him to return the truck, you divert your attention to the stairs. A boy, about your age, is standing at the top and he does not look happy at all.

“Uh… hi?” You start. He says nothing. “Um, I’m Dave. That was Bro. I guess you can call him that or Dirk, which is his real name.”

“Why are you here too?” Is all he asks.

“Well I’m doing great, thanks for asking.” You mutter under your breath. “I guess I can’t let go of him. Kind of an ugly scene when I died. It really traumatized him.”

His face softens. If there’s anything that all ghosts can agree upon, it’s that death doesn’t just affect you. It affects your loved ones as much if not more.

“Karkat,” is all he says. “My name is Karkat.”

And now you two are cohabiting. With Bro. He’s doing better. The move helped a lot. He still has a lot of your things in boxes. Apparently he wants to incorporate you into his new content. He sort of took up art when he was starting therapy and he’s really good.

You learn that Karkat died back in the early 20th century. Some sort of airborne illness that killed both him and his older brother Kankri. When his folks moved, Kankri went with them, but Karkat holds a lot of resentment for his parents. Kankri was the scholar, the handsome older brother who was more composed and proper than Karkat, who was very vocal about his beliefs. Kankri, being the first born son received treatment first, even though Karkat was sicker and needed it more.

So Karkat stayed as the decades passed. Families came and went while he stayed. That one family that voted for Reagan was his least favorite and according to him, he made sure that they knew they weren’t welcome. He watched on their TV, his speeches regarding the AIDS crisis. The thought that someone willingly let people get sick and die when treatment could be found was infuriating. No matter what the person did, it, in his opinion, was a slow and god awful way to go.

You like Karkat. Even though you two get pissed at each other, you feel a connection with him.

And then, one day, Bro brings home a friend from work. This begins happening more often as the weeks go on.

His name is Jake, he has an accent, and he does similar work as Bro.

And then they fucked almost all night.

Karkat’s cheeks are flushed as he hears a low, drawn out moan coming from downstairs. The two of you are sitting in the attic, which is locked to living people since no one knows where the key is. Apparently it was Karkat's room back in the day. You had gotten somewhat used to this on the nights that Rose didn’t stay over. Sometimes Bro would take care of his needs with anonymous cam friends over the country. Normally you play your music so that it gives Bro some privacy, but you feel bad leaving Karkat to listening to the sounds.

“What are they doing to cause that much noise?”

You raise a brow, “Dude, they’re doing the do.”

Karkat cocks his head to the side and raises an eyebrow.

It occurs with you, hello, repressed old fashioned boy here probably doesn’t know a whole lot about the birds and the bees. At least when it comes to two people with dicks.

“So, you have two men -usually- and when they are either really drunk or really in love…” you start. You almost can’t handle how cute Karkat looks when he’s trying to listen. Bushy, dark eyebrows are furrowed over dark brown eyes. You can see that he’s quite a looker. Messy hair that if brushed looks like a lovely floof of softness. 

You feel your cheeks heat when you realize that instead of teaching him, you started admiring his appearance.

“What, Dave? Then what?” He asks.

You clear your throat, “Right, um. Sometimes, if they want to perform penetrative sex, one dude, the top, will enter the other man, the bottom’s, er… bottom. But that takes a lot of time and preparation or both of them could end up really hurting themselves and that isn’t fun.”

“You mean, he does that to the other man’s bum? Isn’t that especially dirty?” He looks so disgusted you almost laugh.

“That’s part of the preparation. A lot of things have been made available so that people can clean themselves. Although there are some people who are into that apparently…”

You can tell Karkat has tuned you out for the most part, a look of contemplation on his face.

“In my time, men who did that were considered… well… not good.”

You nod, “Yeah, that sometimes is still a problem. But the world is slowly moving in a good direction. Our president is literally worse than Satan himself but like, things like the internet have made it easier for people like us to connect and make safe places.” You wish, for that moment, that you could take those words back because you just realized that you inadvertently outed yourself to someone who doesn’t know how to feel about the community.

“I think,” he starts, “this is the first time I wish I were alive since I first died…” he finishes quietly.

“Why’s that?”

“I want to see more about this. I can’t do much since I feel like I’m stuck here. The world is so scary out there, Dave. I don’t know what to do sometimes, which makes me want to stay stuck here.”

You nod. You haven’t thought about it much. It’s way different for Karkat though. It’s been two years for you, but for him it’s been over a hundred. That’s some hella culture shock. Or would it be era-shock? That thing old people experience if they’ve been out of touch for so lo-

What breaks your attention span is the feeling of Karkat’s lips on yours. Very faint, quick, and trembling, but a kiss nonetheless.

Oh god, Karkat is really trembling now. He looks scared like he did something wrong, to you and to himself.

“Karkat, Karkat are you okay?”

“Um,” his voice is shaking and his hands are shaking and you don't know how to comfort him about this. “Was that a bad thing…?”

“No, not at all Karkat. It wasn't bad at all. I kind of liked it, actually.” Sort of truth. You wouldn’t mind kissing Karkat at all, but you would want him to feel more comfortable with it. 

Karkat laughs nervously. “Could… could I do that again?”

You pause him, “Are you sure you want to?”

He nods, this time more confident. The fear seemed to be from the want to please you, which you appreciate. But, you want Karkat to do this because he wants to.

You carefully lace your fingers with his, giving an affectionate squeeze to comfort him as he leans in. You discover that, while he is a repressed Edwardian boy, he is also a really good kisser. Almost like a gentleman or some shit. He isn’t shoving his tongue into your mouth and he’s going at a fucking nice pace. Slow enough to enjoy it, but not too slow to kill the mood. 

And wow, the two years of not thinking about your libido does things to you when you're kissing a hella cute boy. 

Karkat is panting slightly because neither of you want to part. You never thought you would find panting so hot but he’s kissing you in a way that’s making you feel dizzy. Soon you’re panting and you find yourself leaning towards him on the old cot you’re sitting on. One leg between Karkat’s, and you’re resting your weight on your elbow above his head. That went from zero to a hundred real fucking quick. Time to check in on him.

“Karkat, are you okay? Is this okay?” You really don't want to move because this feels good but Karkat feeling good too is what's important here. 

“Fuck yes, don’t stop.” He frowns at you. The language would be a surprise if you didn't know that he gained quite the vocabulary over the years in this house. 

You don’t hesitate to lock lips again, this time exploring a little more. With your free hand, you hold his next to his head. You don’t keep a tight grip since he seems new to this and the last thing you want to do is to scare him. 

Karkat moans quietly when you nibble at his lower lip and, and wow that was a response that actually surprised you from down south.

He uses his other hand to tug at your shirt and you pull away long enough to remove it. “Sure you haven’t done this before?”

Karkat shakes his head, “I never said I haven’t done this before. I just haven’t gone this far.” You later learn that there was a boy named John but it didn’t last long because of John’s internalized hatred.

You nod, “How far do you want to take this?” You rub your thumb across the side of his.

“As far as you can take me.” 

You nod and kiss him swiftly. “I’ll be right back, okay?”

He nods and you stand, floating through the door. The downstairs has been pretty quiet for a while, Bro and Jake were probably asleep by now.

You float slowly into his room, thankful to see that they both had the decency to cover themselves in their privacy. Their place. Without anyone to walk in on them. You grab the first bottle you see from Bro’s open drawer, picking a few packets you think he won’t miss. You leave as fast as you can before either of them could accidentally flash their junk. You ignore the other kinky things you saw in that open drawer. 

When you come back, you’re greeted with a very lovely sight. Karkat still has his pants on, but he’s removed his shirt now and you really want to kiss his skin.

“I got some of this.”

“What is it?”

“Lube, makes it easier if you want me to touch you.”

“I really want you to touch me.”

And you really want to touch him. You lean over him on the bed again and kiss him again and again, taking in the small giggles he lets out when you kiss his nose. Shit he is really cute, you almost don’t know how to handle the situation.

Almost.

You move from his lips to his jaw line, kissing and nipping occasionally. Every groan Karkat makes is super arousing to you and you want to hear more of his voice. When you kiss his collarbone, you get an interesting sound from him. He gasps and jolts a little bit. At first it scares you, and you pull away to check on him again. You’re met with pleas to continue so you take that as a sign to give him more. You’ve sucked a few good marks onto his neck and that really, really, really does something for you but you’ll save the kinky domination shit for if Karkat decides he wants this to be a regular thing.

You’ve moved on to his stomach, kissing his sides and tapping his buckle to ask for permission. You notice the bulge but you don’t touch until Karkat gives the go ahead and boy do you sure dive in.

Karkat is average in length, but seems really girthy and you can’t help but think that you want this in your mouth.

So what the hell, you begin licking up the shaft, looking up to meet Karkat’s eyes. He’s looking at you with shock and awe, and he looks like he doesn’t want you to stop, so you keep going.

You can’t get all of him into your mouth, so for what you can’t get, you make up for with your hands. You learned to do this the night of your high school graduation when you did it for your own John who was certainly Not A Homosexual™. You wonder if your John was a reincarnation of Karkat’s. You stop thinking of your old best friend as you’re sucking off Karkat.

Karkat throws his head back and moans so loud you were -stupidly- worried the two of you would be heard. He rolls his hips towards you so fast you almost gag, but you hold his hips down fast enough to avoid it. You get a little adventurous and shift your other hand downward. He hasn’t eaten for a decade so he should be clean.

You pull away and hear a displeased grunt from above. “Why’d you stop?” he whines.

“Because I want to make sure you want to do more.”

Karkat’s flushed face seems to become more red as he slowly nods.

You crawl back up his body and peck his lips, “Hey, it’s okay if you want to take a break. That was a lot.” You kiss his nose next.

He nods, “I promise I’m okay Dave, please please touch me, I want more.”

Again, filing the begging away for a later date. You nod in return and kiss him one more time as you tear into the pack of lube. It’s thick, so you hope it goes a long way too. You don’t know if ghosts like you can feel pain, but if you can feel pleasure you assume you can. You’d rather play it safe than sorry anyway.

You completely remove Karkat’s pants with his help since, well, lube hands. Karkat looks shy as he hesitantly spreads his legs. You give him a questioning look to make sure he’s still okay with this and he nods quickly, covering his face with his hands. You kiss his inner thighs and with one hand, continue stroking him as you press against him with one lubed finger. You don’t penetrate yet since he seems very tense, you instead keep up this rhythm so he calms down and really enjoys himself.

After ages of gentle touches, Karkat seems relaxed enough for you to press into him to the first knuckle. The look on his face says that there’s, well, that there’s a finger in his ass.

You gently push in a little more and his breath hitches slightly. You look up and he’s panting, teeth worrying his lower lip as he reaches down and takes over with fucking his hand. You let him continue doing that if it helps him loosen (ugh that was awful even for you) up more. Congratulations. You have exactly one finger in Karkat’s ass. You pick up your pace because it looks like Karkat wants more. You begin to curl your fingers in hopes that he really likes what happens next.

As you expected, he does, but not to the degree you were expecting. Apparently Karkat was really close when you found his prostate because he moans loudly and cums all over his chest and stomach.

You watch in awe because you did that, you helped him cum. Karkat is breathing heavily and wearing the best fucking blissed-out smile you’ve ever seen and you lean up to kiss him. “Good?”

He’s out of breath. “Very, very good.” He pulls you in for another kiss. “What about you? You didn’t get to…”

You shake your head, “I’m fine, that was pretty amazing to watch if I’m being completely honest.” You flash a grin, but Karkat isn’t having it.

“Hush, Dave, I want to do this for you if you want to.”

You comply because he looks really hot and even though he came his eyes are still hooded and clouded over. You switch places and feel your pants being tugged down and off of you completely.

Your dick is out in the open now. This is the reality. 

You don’t have time to stop and notice how lovely Karkat looks when he’s looking at you because holy shit he’s sucking your dick you won’t last long at all at this rate.

“Oh fuck, Karkat, that’s too good.” You groan and run your fingers through his hair, trying your hardest to not face-fuck him because no one likes being choked by a dick.

Karkat sucks hard and you’re so close to cumming you almost give him a warning when he pops off and leans forward. He kisses you deeply and pulls away panting.

“I saw a couple doing this one time, can I try?” he asks.

You don’t know what exactly Karkat has in mind until he straddles your hips, bringing more of the packets towards you. You get the hint, using the rest of the one you opened earlier to finish prepping him. There is always time for lubricant.

It feels like it's taken ages to get three fingers into him, but it gave you time to cool down and him to get completely hard again. Hearing him moan made it worthwhile anyway.

He looks at you with trepidation in his eyes. You’re glad he suggested this position for him, it gives him the authority on the pace and depth so he finds what feels good for him. “Go with what you want, okay?” You tell him and rub his hip soothingly. He nods and starts lowering himself onto you. The look of discomfort is clear when the head pops in, but thanks to literally all of the lube you brought from Bro’s room save for one, the rest of the length makes it easy for him to seat himself in your lap. You’re both panting now and you bring Karkat a little closer to your level and you kiss him. He moans into your mouth when you gently roll your hips up into his, testing the waters. 

“Dave, move with me please,” he begs, trying to get the angle just right but failing.

You nod and kiss him, planting your feet into the mattress and thrusting your hips into him. He makes a surprised moan and begins following your rhythm, not having found the magical spot yet but this still seems to be doing something for him. The sounds of your movement is borderline obscene when Karkat picks up his pace and leans back to rest is weight on one of your knees. His eyes widens for a split second before they close and he’s really loud now, moaning and gasping your name. He tightens around you and you take the hint that you’ve found that spot again.

“Ahh, ah, Dave please touch me, I-ahh.” he leans his head back.

You take his order and begin pumping him, moaning with him because you’re getting close too. The sight of Karkat bouncing on your cock alone is enough to send you over the edge but you’re hellbent to get Karkat to cum again before you do.

“Fuck, Karkat I’m getting there-”

Karkat stops moving and grinds his hips as he unloads onto your stomach, almost screaming your name as his hips jerk and fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck-

You cum inside of him, the sounds of his moaning carrying you through your orgasm.

You find yourself panting with him again, not really caring that the mess the two of you made is still here. The sun has been up for… fuck, you don’t really know for how long but the house is still quiet so you think Bro and Jake have left by now. 

You nuzzle Karkat’s cheek, “Hey, I think Bro installed a new shower head in his bathroom, if he’s gonna, wanna go check it out?”

He groans and nods, standing up. In the morning light, you can completely admire his body, his face, his… everything. He’s probably the most gorgeous man you’ve ever laid eyes on. “What is it?” Dammit, he caught you oogling. Not cool, Strider.

“Nothing, just admiring the view.” Nice save.

He stammers a little bit before telling you to fuck off and come join him in the shower. You gladly oblige.

The two of you are standing in the shower and giggling like idiots with each other. You realize now that things may not be as bad as they seemed. You have Karkat as a companion now.

Since he’s moved here, Bro lightened up on the drinking. Jake comes by more often and even leaves things here. Bro seems to be doing worlds better. While you’re not really glad that you’re dead, you’re glad that Bro was able to meet Jake. You’re glad that you were able to meet Karkat.

You don’t know how long the afterlife really lasts or what to expect from now on. You don’t know if ghosts ever truly “move on”, or when you might do that. Karkat is still here, so maybe it takes a long time. Maybe there’s more to the afterlife than just sitting around, waiting for the day to come and go. You see now that you have no idea what to expect from this; all you can do is hope that Karkat wants to be by your side as you navigate this new “life”.

You’ve fallen heads over heels for him and based on how he smiles at you like this, he feels the same way.

Yeah. You can do this. Together.


End file.
